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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Rabbi Capsali was born in the Island of Crete (today Greece) in 1420.
Not much is known about his early life, except that he went to study
Tora in Germany, became a rabbi and then in 1450 he settled in
Constantinople (modern day, Istanbul).

Rabbi Capsali became
very prominent thanks to his closeness with the Turkish Sultan Mehmed
the Second, also known as "The Conqueror". Mehmed II brought the end of
the Byzantine empire and conquered Constantinople in 1453. He was one of
the most powerful men on the planet in those days. The Sultan appointed
Rabbi Capsali as the Chief Rabbi or Hakham Bashi of the Ottoman
empire.

As the Chief rabbi of the Empire, rabbi Capsali was
in charge of appointing other rabbis and supervising the collection of
taxes coming from the Jews. He also acted as a civil judge. It is said
that the Sultan's respect for the rabbi was because, disguised as a
civilian, Mehmed II was present one day while Capsali was rendering his
decisions and he assured himself that the rabbi was incorruptible and
impartial in his judgments.

The Sultan appreciated so much
Rabbi Capsali that he assigned him a seat beside the Mufti, the Muslim
highest authority, and above the seat of the Christian patriarch.

One
of the most important contribution of Rabbi Capsali to Am Israel is
that thanks to his favor with the Sultan, the Sultan opened the gates of
his empire to tens of thousands of Jewish refugees who were escaping
form the horrors of the Inquisition in Spain and from persecutions they
suffered in many Christian countries. The Sultan allowed and even
encouraged the Jewish refugees to build homes, synagogues and houses of
study (Bate Midrash), and to practice their religion freely.

In
1492, towards the last years of Rabbi Capsali's life, the great tragedy
of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain took place. His advanced age
notwithstanding, Rabbi Capsali dedicated himself in soul and body to
help the victims of the expulsion. Many Sephardic Jews were captured by
pirates when escaping from Spain and were sold as slaves. Rabbi Capsali
personally traveled to various Jewish communities in his country to
collect funds for Pidyon Shebuim, to redeem these Jews. It was thanks
to rabbi Capsali that the most prominent Sephardic communities in those
times flourished in Constantinople and other cities of the Ottoman
empire.

Rabbi Capsali died in 1495 at the age of 75 he was succeeded as Hakham Bashi by Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrahi.

There is a difference in English between killing and murdering. While
"killing" is a verb than can be applied to causing the death of humans
or animals, "murdering" refers exclusively to the act of killing another
human being.

Our rabbis explain that the context of the 10
Commandments refers to actions from a person to another person, and not
from a person to someone's property. The Eight commandment לא תגנב, for
example, usually translated as "You shall not steal" has been explained
by our rabbis as "You shall not kidnap" (You shall not steal...a
person), an unfortunate practice that leads to forced-labor or slavery.
There is another commandment in Vayqra (Lev. 19:11) that uses the same
words, לא תגנבו, but the context refers to damages against other
people's properties. In Leviticus, therefore, לא תגנבו is translated as:
"You shall not steal". This method, the understanding of a word or a
law according to its context, is one of the 13 principles of
hermeneutics (=legal interpretation of the Bible) known in rabbinic
literature as דבר הלמד מענינו, "a law that is deduced by its context".

Going
back to the Sixth commandment, we should then translate it as "You
shall not murder", referring to the act of killing another human being,
and not "You shall not kill".

This is a short commandment in
terms of its length, just six letters, but it is, perhaps, the most
comprehensive in terms of its details, scope, applications, etc.

First,
Jewish Law, similar to American Law differentiates between different
levels of murder: premeditated murder, murder by negligence, accidental
murder, etc. Then, we also have the case of killing as an act of self
defense or preemptive murder. We also need to define the application of
this commandment to complex situations, Halakhic scenarios which are
very prevalent in our days. For example: is abortion considered murder?
Is euthanasia (=killing a person who is suffering) permitted in Jewish
law? Does Jewish law allow organs' donation? These subjects require a
clear definition of the moment in which life begins or end; quality of
life vs. termination of life, passive vs active euthanasia, etc. In
the following weeks BH we will analyze these matters one by one.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

The eighteenth berakha of the 'amida, Modim, is the longest one and the
main blessing of the third section of the 'amida known as hoda-a (gratitude). The Hebrew word modim actually means: "We thank... (You God)".

After
having focused in the previous blessings on what we need and want from
God, now we turn our attention to all what we have been given by God.
Gratitude, Jewish gratitude, consists in the acknowledgment that God is
the ultimate source of what we are, of what we have, and of all good
things that happen to us.

The psychological effect of this
berakha cannot be underestimated. "Modim" educate us. It trains us to
feel a sense of endless indebtedness toward God. As if for a moment, we
abandon our selfish sense of entitlement and we reassess the blessings
that we usually take for granted. By enumerating the multitude of
"gifts" we constantly receive from HaShem, this berakha opens our eyes
to appreciate. Appreciation is the prerequisite for gratitude.

It
is important to notice that we begin by thanking haShem for being our
God. In other words, we express our gratitude to God for having chosen
us among the nations.

Then, we turn our attention to the fact
that we still exist as a nation, despite having so many enemies who wish
we were not here. We acknowledge that our physical survival depends on
Him.

This is the beginning of Modim

"We thank You, that You are HaShem, our God,and the God of our fathers. (You are our God) for ever.You are the Protector (tsur=rock) of our lives. You are our Shield and Savior.

This berakha is so important (second only to magen Abraham) that our rabbis instructed us to bow-down at the beginning (modim anahnu lakh) and at the end of this blessing (hatob shimkha...).

Monday, June 23, 2014

This Mizmor was composed by King David at the beginning of his
kingdom. All the kings of Philistines (pelishtim), fearful of the new
Jewish King, got together and conspired against David and his people.
The Philistines thought that they could easily defeat David and were
singing their own praise. In verse 2:4 David describes what was
happening in heaven while the enemies of Israel were bragging about
destroying us.

יושב בשמים ישחק " [God] the One Who sits in His
heavenly [throne] laughs"... at their thoughts. This powerful
literary motif, "HaShem's laughing" is used here to express that the
enemies of Israel, when they plan their battles and attacks against us,
they are oblivious of Hashem's intervention to protect us.

David
haMelekh says that although Hashem intervenes in all areas of our
personal life, His oversight is absolutely critical when our enemies
conspire against us.

In 2:7 David haMelekh explains "how" HaShem protects Israel.

ה'
אמר אלי בני אתה "HaShem told me You are My child". First, we learn
that Hashem loves us as a parent loves his or her child. But then,
David haMelekh takes us to a deeper level of understanding of God's
love for us. אני היום ילידתיך "I gave birth to you today".

Two different motifs are expressed in this verse, a child and a newborn baby. Why?

1.
Imagine a mother with her nine years old child in the park. While he
would be playing with other kids or on his own, the mother will
supervise him. And she will assist him just upon his request. A baby is
different than a child. A newborn baby demands 24/7 attention,
supervision and total-care. The mother would not abandon her newborn
child even for single moment. The mother would nurture, help and
assist her baby all the time. Even when the baby would not be asking
for anything.

2. A nine years old child knows what he needs and
recognizes his mother's intervention in helping him. A baby is not
conscious of what he needs. The mother feeds him, nurtures him and
protects him without him been aware of his mother intervention!

David
haMelekh says that HaShem's ultimate level of protection is when He
takes care of us like a loving mother takes care of her newborn baby.

I
think about "Israel" as a baby under haShem's constant invisible
supervision. We all know that many bad things happen all the time. But
think about this: Medinat Israel is in the midst of the most volatile
area of the planet. Surrounded by the most violent people on earth.
Kamikazes, who don't mind to immolate themselves if they would kill a
Jew in the process. People for whom the desire to destroy Israel is the
only thing stronger than the desire to destroy each other. And many of
those live within Israel. We are all very, very sad for all
the bad things happening in Israel right now. But at the same time we
need to be in awe, and very grateful to haShem, for all the many
tragedies that are not happening in Israel, and we are not even aware
of. Our incredible IDF has a great part in this endeavor, and they are
surely acting as agents of HaShem in protecting our people. But above
every human effort, it is HaShem who protects us in ways that we, like a
newborn baby, can't even begin to realize.